Trafficked (2017)

Directed by: Will Wallace | 104 minutes | drama, thriller | Actors: Jason London, Elisabeth Röhm, Ashley Judd, Sean Patrick Flanery, Anne Archer, Brian Thompson, Madison Wolfe, Patrick Duffy, Courtney Gains, Efren Ramirez, Amiah Miller, Anjali Bhimani, Kelly Washington, Sapir Azulay, Matt Doran, Niki Koss , Duane Whitaker, Massi Furlan, Shae Smolik, Anjul Nigam, Rich Emberlin, Jacquelin Arroyo

Good intentions don’t make a good movie unfortunately. ‘Trafficked’ is living proof of that. This thriller aims to put the subject of human smuggling on the map. A noble endeavor and very important, but the clumsy way in which director Will Wallace addresses this theme makes little impression. A shame, because for this low budget thriller he has gathered a rather impressive cast around him. For example, Hollywood actors Ashley Judd and Sean Patrick Flanery trot in this production. As said, it is not a noteworthy spectacle.

In ‘Trafficked’ attention is paid to human smuggling. Millions of vulnerable girls and women worldwide are forced to work in the sex industry by traffickers. Sex slavery is about a hundred billion dollars a year. This film highlights the stories of three girls from America, Nigeria and India. After being trafficked by a worldwide network of human organs and drug traffickers, the trio ends up in a Texas brothel. An escape attempt is initiated.

The biggest flaw with ‘Trafficked’ is the casting and the script. Screenwriter Siddharth Kara is a Harvard professor and responsible for the book on which this film is based. Writing a book is different than picking up a story for a movie. ‘Trafficked’ is characterized by artificial dialogues and wooden play. In addition, the main characters do not come out well and the three girls never rise above their caricatural setting (the young mother in search of a better life, an Indian student who wants to go to a prestigious American university and the American who has been betrayed by a social worker). .

The villains don’t come out well either. The characters get stuck in characters. For example, Ashley Judd does not know how to put down a full character in the role of mean social worker and she does not get any further than interpreting a character. Flanery also fails to turn his sadistic brothel owner into a flesh and blood man. The acting is flat.

‘Trafficked’ lingers on the surface and does not succeed in convincingly portraying the problem of human smuggling. Unfortunate. A better script and better developed characters would have done this movie well. Now it remains with a creditable attempt and a weak effect.